He still maintains his integrity for me. He might be French, he might have handled the ball, but mistakes are frequent in football and Henry has been one of the best players the game has seen for years. Not his fault the referee cocked up. It is also not his fault that Ireland failed to qualify automatically through their group.

Keane's a fucking drongo as time wears on he's slowly slipping down the Bryan Robson hole, the one where it takes a fucking long time for the whole set up to admit that what was an ace player is a fucking shit manager.

Diamond Dust wrote:He still maintains his integrity for me. He might be French, he might have handled the ball, but mistakes are frequent in football and Henry has been one of the best players the game has seen for years. Not his fault the referee cocked up. It is also not his fault that Ireland failed to qualify automatically through their group.

arover wrote:Keane's a fucking drongo as time wears on he's slowly slipping down the Bryan Robson hole, the one where it takes a fucking long time for the whole set up to admit that what was an ace player is a fucking shit manager.

He was always a didicot now he's reverting back to type.

No doubt he does not look like the sort of manager people expected him to be after being such a leader on the pitch. But I cannot help but like the fella. Someone in the football bubble who actually says what is on his mind - thank you, Jesus. Personally I need people like Keane involved in the game because if not I would almost certainly die of boredom and move onto watching something like curling or horsejumping.

Out of that United era you probably have the two most unexpected good managers out of quite a few who would have looked more likely candidates; the jury is still out on Keane and Ince. Robson, as you say, has showed he cannot be trusted to manage a team. McClair was part of the coaching team that sent us down ten years ago, although I would assume he is a more respected coach nowadays.

That leaves Hughes and Bruce who are both exceptionally good managers, yet the two who were fairly quiet on the pitch. I remember some Sunderland players saying Keane was very difficult to work for because he had such a short temper and scared the players too much by kicking chairs around. While Ince is not as ferocious as Keane, his stubbornness and pride is of a similar mould and I think he naturally has the talent to do well as a coach for lower league teams, but is too unwilling to learn at BIG, HUGE, MASSIVE clubs like Blackburn Rovers.

It will be interesting to see who out of that side goes on to be a huge success. Cole has mentioned he might be interested in a management career, which is surprising. There has been no sign of Irwin, Sharpe, Pallister or Kanchelskis, to mention a few, but Fergie certainly rubs off on players.

Diamond Dust wrote:He still maintains his integrity for me. He might be French, he might have handled the ball, but mistakes are frequent in football and Henry has been one of the best players the game has seen for years. Not his fault the referee cocked up. It is also not his fault that Ireland failed to qualify automatically through their group.

There was no mistake, Henry deliberately handled the ball knowing that the only way the ref or linesman would see him cheat is if one of them were stood right in front of him

Henry isn't stupid, this is the same Henry that would wait off the pitch for the keeper to release the ball for a goal kick before running up behind and nicking the ball and scoring, also the same guy that would appear to be coming back from an offside position while the ball is played and then run on to the ball and go on to score.

"No doubt he does not look like the sort ofmanager people expected him to be after being such a leader on thepitch. But I cannot help but like the fella. Someone in the footballbubble who actually says what is on his mind - thank you, Jesus.Personally I need people like Keane involved in the game because if notI would almost certainly die of boredom and move onto watchingsomething like curling or horsejumping."

All very well, I don't really dispute that but saying what is on your mind does not make you a good football manager. Most professions requre a little reticence, I'm not too sure how long I would have lasted in my chosen field had I elected to say what I really felt most of the time. The difference with Keane is that he has the financial security to be able to afford not to give a fuck.

PieEater wrote:"That leaves Hughes and Bruce who are both exceptionally good managers"

Bruce has managed about seven years of shitness prior to an ok spell at Wigan and as yet an incomplete job at Sunderland, ask uddersfield fans what they think of the wonky nosed geordie twat.

As for Henry being llet down by the French, bullshit. If you felt the need to retire then don't fight it, actions speak louder than words you cheese eating surrender monkey!

I'd say Bruce is on a rough par with Fat Sam, if you're the chairman of a middling club and you want to greatly decrease the possibility of relegation then you won't go far wrong enticing a wonky nosed Geordie twat into the ranks.

arover wrote:All very well, I don't really dispute that but saying what is on your mind does not make you a good football manager. Most professions requre a little reticence, I'm not too sure how long I would have lasted in my chosen field had I elected to say what I really felt most of the time. The difference with Keane is that he has the financial security to be able to afford not to give a fuck.

Yeah, I wasn't really saying he's a good manager because he says what he thinks, purely that we (or I) need him in the game to negate all the robotic shit that comes out of players' and managers' mouths. I even said in the post that Keane, like Ince, has a lot to prove as a manager.